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Press Releases: Internal Efficiency & Effectiveness

December 22, 2003

SBA, OMB, GSA and DOD Work Together to Integrate Pro-Net and CCR Database
to Simplify Contracting Process for Small Businesses

WASHINGTON D.C. - The U.S. Small Business Administration,
the Department of Defense, the Office of Management and Budget and the
General Services Administration are taking steps to simplify the federal
contracting process by creating an integrated database of small businesses
that want to do business with the government.

The integration of the existing Pro-Net and DOD’s Central Contractor
Registration (CCR) databases will create one portal for entering and
searching small business sources and will assist small businesses with
marketing their goods and services to the federal government. The integration
will begin on Jan 1.

The CCR-PRO-Net linkage is part of a comprehensive strategic effort
to transfer Pro-Net’s functions to the E-Gov Business Partner Network
(BPN) in order to simplify government-wide vendor registration. The network
is part of the Integrated Acquisition Environment (IAE), one of the E-Government
initiatives under the President’s Management Agenda.

IAE is carrying out OMB’s mandate for new processes to streamline
federal acquisition by creating common integrated business processes
for buyers and sellers in the federal marketplace. The network incorporates
DOD’s CCR database. Registration in CCR is now a requirement for
federal contracts. After Dec. 31, CCR will assume all of Pro-Net’s
search capabilities and functions and small businesses will no longer
need to manually register in both Pro-Net and CCR.

”We are continuing to make strides in simplifying the process
to help small businesses conduct business with the government,“ said
SBA Administrator Hector V. Barreto. ”By integrating PRO-Net’s
functions into CCR, the foundation of the Business Partner Network, we
are helping to advance the President’s goal of a single, user-friendly,
integrated acquisition environment.“

This merger is another step toward the goals to unify common systems
and ensure that data need only be entered once and then reused.

Procuring agencies and contracting officers who rely on Pro-Net as
the authoritative source for vendors that are certified in SBA’s 8(a)
Business Development program, HUBZone Empowerment Contracting Program
and Small Disadvantaged Business program will now access this information
through CCR. To conduct market research and confirm eligibility for SBA’s
procurement preference programs, users will go to the CCR web site at
www.ccr.gov and click on the ”Dynamic Small Business Search“ button.
All of the search options and information that existed in Pro-Net will
now be found at the CCR Dynamic Small Business Search site.

Within SBA, Pro-Net will be superseded by the Small Business Source
System, an internal
database of businesses certified by SBA as participants
in the 8(a), HUBZone and SDB
programs. Businesses will no longer have to self-certify
as a small business for purposes of registering in CCR and being identified
as a small business in the SBSS. The SBSS system will perform calculations
necessary to determine whether companies are small, based on employment
or revenue information entered into CCR. Firms will update their records
on the CCR Update web page and should follow the links and directions
found there.